A roster notice period is the amount of advance warning a business gives staff of their confirmed shifts, or of a change to a shift they were already given, before the shift takes effect.

How it works

Notice periods commonly apply at more than one point in a roster's lifecycle:

• Initial roster publication — how far ahead the confirmed roster is shared, once allocation is finalised.
• Changes to a confirmed roster — how much warning is given if a shift is added, moved, or cancelled after it was already confirmed.
• Cancellation by the worker — conversely, how much notice a worker is expected to give if they can't make an allocated shift, which is part of what separates a no-show from a fair cancellation.

Longer notice generally gives both sides more room to plan and to recover any gap; shorter notice trades planning time for the ability to react to late-arriving demand — which matters for genuinely fast-changing environments like event or hospitality venues.

Why it matters

Some jurisdictions set minimum notice or compensation requirements for last-minute roster changes as part of broader "fair scheduling" or "secure work" protections — intended to stop businesses shifting all the scheduling risk onto casual staff with no warning. Whether such rules apply, and what the specific minimums are, depends on the jurisdiction, the employment agreement, and current law.

This is a general description, not legal or employment advice. Check current NZ (Employment New Zealand) or AU (Fair Work) guidance for any minimum notice requirements that may apply to your business before setting policy.

In Chronomancer

Chronomancer's roster state machine makes notice visible and auditable rather than informal: bidding windows have a defined close, confirmations are sent when a roster moves to Scheduled, and any later move — in Revise or via Live Ops — is logged to audit_log and triggers a re-notification to whoever's affected, so there's always a record of what notice was actually given.